District Attorney Pamela Price announced Wednesday that she had reached a deal with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office to obtain documents relating to the care of Maurice Monk, who died at Santa Rita Jail in 2021.
“Too many people have died in police custody, and too many have died in Santa Rita jail,” Price said at the press conference, which Monk’s daughter and sisters attended. “We will hold those responsible for the death of Maurice Monk accountable.”
The development is one small step forward in a case that stretches back to November 2021, when Monk was found face-down, covered in bodily fluids, dead inside his cell.
Monk, who was incarcerated due to an argument with a bus driver and was unable to post bail, had been in jail for over a month. Body camera footage released in October showed that deputies had ignored warning signs, failed to provide medication, and failed to properly check in on Monk, who may have been dead for three days before his death was discovered.
Since 2014, 68 people have died while in custody at Santa Rita jail, the fifth-largest jail in the country.
Alameda County recently settled with Monk’s family for $7 million, an unprecedented amount of money for the county. But although that settlement might put the lawsuit to bed, it does not mark the conclusion of the District Attorney’s pursuit of the case.
According to Price and Deputy District Attorney Zachary Linowitz, the sheriff’s office has until now refused to hand over what Linowitz described as the “fundamental materials” necessary to conduct an investigation.
Those materials include logs, police reports, autopsy records, and other records that Linowitz believes the sheriff’s office could have provided within days, if not hours. Instead, the District’s Attorney’s Office was stonewalled for well over a year.
“I would hope that it’s not malicious,” Linowitz said. “But I just don’t know.”
There was some expectation that Price might announce charges against Santa Rita deputies on Wednesday. But Adanté Pointer, the attorney representing Monk’s family, said he expected that would be the next step.
“The family and the community welcome this investigation into the death of Maurice Monk,” said Pointer, the attorney for Monk’s family, in a statement. “We anticipate the district attorney will file charges once she is able to get her hands on the true facts around how Mr. Monk died.”
Those true facts lie in the materials that Price said have thus far been withheld by the Sheriff’s office.
Last night, after a phone call with District Attorney Price, Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez agreed in writing to provide the materials Linowitz had requested by November 17th.
Price declined to comment on the content of that phone call, or what precipitated the sheriff’s agreement.
“Going to Santa Rita county jail should not be a death sentence for anyone,” Price said.
